Jewish Cultural Group Concerned About Future of Jews in the USSR

The congress for Jewish Culture, on the eve of the 25th anniversary of the execution of 24 Yiddish writers, poets and intellectuals by the Stalin regime, called upon Soviet Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin "to relay to your government our deep concern about the future survival of the Jewish minority as a cultural and religious entity" in the Soviet Union.

This request to Dobrynin, in a telegram signed by Dr. Israel Knox, president, and Hyman Bass, executive director of the Congress, also stated that the execution constituted a "miscarriage of justice under the Stalin regime" which "resulted in the liquidation of all Jewish cultural institutions and schools."

The telegram added: "We consider the denial of the cultural right and the continued prohibition to re-establish the cultural institutions which Soviet Jewry enjoyed until 1948 as a great injustice and reflecting a policy contrary to the position of the Soviet government after the October Revolution. . . .We urge the restitution to Soviet Jewry all cultural rights guaranteed by the Soviet constitution to national minorities."

The Congress, which was formed in 1948, promotes Yiddish publications and cultural activities in this country and Israel. It publishes the Yiddish literary magazine, Zukunft, and sponsors an annual H. Leivick Award. It also tries to collect and restore Yiddish literature destroyed during the Holocaust.